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Columbus is on a tear, if they and Anaheim and teams like that keep it up there is a real chance for us to be 3-4, and you can win in the lottery and move up one spot. So going from 3 to 2 is a huge deal. #2 lands us Grigor who is probably a more complete/NHL ready player then anyone else in the draft, with Yakupov having all-star written all over him he still needs size and to work on playing in all ends. I see this draft being very close (when talking about the first 2 picks, the entire draft is probably one of the deepest in...well I cant honestly think of the last draft like this one) to the Hall-Seguin year. But I think Yakupov and Grigor are better then Hall-Seguin coming into the draft. Even Forsberg at #3 would be great, Dumba at #4 or Murray. No matter what if we keep this us we are going to draft someone great. I also think Dumba could come in and play in the NHL, and thats super rare for a D.

I just hate it when people judge things without doing their research. Zanon a 31 y/o character defensive d man for Kampfer a young 22 y/o puck mover with good showing on the Bruins, good PPG per ATOI there. And he has looked great with Gilbert and is proving that he is better then the 6th man on the Bruins. Probably one of the better pure hockey trades Fletcher has made. Just ignore his -5, since the entire team pretty much was -3+ because of that last game haha if you watch you know he has played well.

Columbus is on a tear, if they and Anaheim and teams like that keep it up there is a real chance for us to be 3-4, and you can win in the lottery and move up one spot. So going from 3 to 2 is a huge deal. #2 lands us Grigor who is probably a more complete/NHL ready player then anyone else in the draft, with Yakupov having all-star written all over him he still needs size and to work on playing in all ends. I see this draft being very close (when talking about the first 2 picks, the entire draft is probably one of the deepest in...well I cant honestly think of the last draft like this one) to the Hall-Seguin year. But I think Yakupov and Grigor are better then Hall-Seguin coming into the draft. Even Forsberg at #3 would be great, Dumba at #4 or Murray. No matter what if we keep this us we are going to draft someone great. I also think Dumba could come in and play in the NHL, and thats super rare for a D.

I think you are mistaken. No team can DROP more than one space in the lottery because only one team wins. The team that wins moves up at most 4 spaces. (I.E. if your in 3rd and win the draft you can only move up 2 spaces to first) When NJ won the lottery for the 2011 draft they moved from 8th to 4th.

Via Wikipedia; At the conclusion of the regular season, the 14 NHL teams not qualifying for the playoffs are entered in a weighted lottery to determine the initial draft picks in the first round, seeded according to regular season standing. The 30th-place team has a 25% chance of winning the lottery, with odds diminishing to a 0.5% chance for the 17th-place team. A single selection from the lottery pool is made, with the winning team improving its draft position by up to four places, and no team dropping more than one place. Therefore, only the 26th through 30th place teams are eligible to receive the first overall draft pick.[7][8] Consequently, the 30th place team's chance of retaining the first overall pick improves to 48.2%.[5] The order in the remaining rounds is unaffected by the lottery and is based on regular season standings.

Ahh see I never looked it up, I was guessing it was similar to the NBA lottery. One team go picked to move up the 4 spots and then some got picked to move up one? I honestly dont know what I was thinking hah...But anyways there will be around what a 8% chance if we end at 5? Otherwise we could move up 4 spots and still land a great pick somewhere. Have faith Killer, MN hasnt won a lottery at any professional level, it has to come one day so hey why not this time? Hah. We still look good though no matter where we land in the top 10 for pick. But I admit I was wrong. Thanks for researching it for clarification

No Prob

I had to do a fair amount of digging just to figure things out myself. Its a rather stupid "lottery" if you ask me.. Personally I think it should be like the NBA more, or just get rid of it. I have little faith that we will win the lottery, we tend to have zero luck in things like this. Lets just "hope" the wild loose to a hot Dallas Team tonight and NYI and Carolina win.. I've looked a little at schedules from here out and IMHO the wild probbly have the tuffest schedule of those teams that we are "contending" with for a higher pick. I think it is safe to say Columbus and Edm. both have us beat no matter what but the rest is up in the air. Even if we have a top 5 or 6 pick we should be in good shape.

There are three projected forwards in the top 6 picks and three projected Dmen. Nail Yakupov (What a Hockey name... NAIL!!!) is the consensus #1. the next 5 picks are a bit of a crap shoot. Filip Foresberg LW Mikhail Grigorenko RW, Mat Dumba D, Ryan Murray D, Morgain Reilly D. And had he not gotten hurt earlier in the year Alex Galenchuk (SP is a question on all names by the way) is a Center and was projected to give Nail a run for the #1 overall pick. http://www.draftsite.com/nhl/mock-draft/2012 has some pretty good bios on each..

Anyways, I wish and hope the wild can aquire some more cap space this summer With potentially 18 million in cap space this year and 13 mill coming off the books next year (Assuming the extend Clutter) in PMB 4 mill, Cullen 3.5 mill and Backstrom 6 mill AND about 16 mill coming off the books the following year pending extenstions with 7.5 mil for heater, 3 mil for seto and 4 mill for Gilbert. the wild could be set to take a stab at some Top Free agents this season and next and the following. Plus give them selves some space to extend some of the young guys if they are ready for it and or earn it. None of that even takes into account if the wild even spend to the cap in any of those years. We FINALLY have some financial flexzibility.

The future is still bright.. Stay the Course and the ship will wirght it self..

1-2 is easily Nail-Grigor...The only way that does not happen is if Edmonton is #2 and decided a blue chip D man is more important then picking the best player on the board because of how stacked they are with young forwards. Consensus 3 is Dumba which I agree. Forsberg is 4 then Murray and Reilly or Galy at 5 the other going number 6. But with what we have seen happen the past two years with D men itll be tough to say the true order they go in, although Dumba I believe is leagues ahead of the others. Dumba plays big and moves the puck and has a hell of a shot and first pass. Where are Murray and Reilly are good puck movers they dont have the Defensive polish or physicality that he has.

Hey how about this free agency we sign some more 30 some year old third liners who score 20 points a year! That's worked so well for us the last five or so years! What will our cheap owner do this year to dupe Wild fans?

?????

Originally Posted by MNWILD2012

Hey how about this free agency we sign some more 30 some year old third liners who score 20 points a year! That's worked so well for us the last five or so years! What will our cheap owner do this year to dupe Wild fans?

I'm simply saying that if you've watched who the Wild have signed over the last 4 years or so you'd know it's been a joke. Ex. Eric Nystrom, Eric Belanger, Darrell Powe, Andrew Brunette, Anti Mietninnen, John Madden, Andrew Ebbet, Owen Nolan, Petr Sykora, etc.. All would barley make another NHL team much less be second and first liners which we tried to make them. Put that on top of not one first round draft pick turning into anything and here we are. Thankfully we have some cap space and a few decent prospects now. However I expect our owner to be cheap again and rather than try to sign a Parise or Suter will likely go after more 3rd liners to try and put on our first and second lines and rot on out roster for two or three years and then fall out of the NHL. I hope he proves me wrong but this is Minnesota we're talking about here, they usually find a way to be average one way or another.

OK, some of those names I agree with.. Nystrom didn’t work out.. HERE. But he’s on the second line in Dallas and if HE would have performed to the level here that he is in Dallas I don’t think people would complain about him as much. Belanger was signed in 2007. and we traded him away in 2009. He was also a very serviceable Center. Not great, but fit a roll for the team. Darrel Powe is only 25/26 years old. He isn’t a first liner.. but they knew that when they brought him in. He was never supposed to be a stud. Just a gritty, penalty killer who brings energy.. I think he does that.. And he is certainly not a 30 something. As for Bruno and Nolan, when they brought them in, we needed a some solid veterans on the club because we actually thought we were still in it. We were wrong, but it was the right move at the time. Mittens and Madden fall into the, I can’t argue with you area, they stunk. I don’t think they were good signings, but I do think for the direction the team was going at the time they probably fit a need. I do whole heartedly disagree with your statement that all would barely make another team. Sykora, Bruno, Nystrom, Madden, Belanger are all on other teams and performing probably up to their expectations. As for the “Not one first round draft pick turning into anything”…. I’m not convinced you know what you’re talking about… Granted there is a history of “Old Guard” first rounder’s that flopped. None are from the current GM. I would say that we have more than a “few decent” prospects in our system right now and they are just about all a product of the current GM and his staff doing their jobs and doing it rather well. He has made a few mistakes which many people are quick to point out, but as a whole he is doing pretty good. He has more than once publicly stated that we are in a “youth movement” most acquisitions have been younger players with upside potential the past year or so. I hope that they make some solid moves in free agency also. But depending on the contract that Parise or Suter want, I’m not willing to hamstring our ability to extend some of our top tier youth in the future, because we signed someone to a huge long term deal that isn’t panning out… I hope like hell that IF we get these guys they work out.. But I’m not interested in Way over paying.. I can say with conviction that I hope they prove you wrong too.

Ok I agree not everyone I listed there was literally 30 something, and I can live with Powe as he's more of a penalty killer specialist etc... And our new GM has done much better. I guess my point is is that this franchise has made so many dumb movies in the past. I mean I think it's a pretty simple concept for a GM to understand, you bring in players to build a championship contender, not to simply plug holes or just sign players for the hell of it. You either sign all young players with potential through drafting or trades, ie what Edmonton is doing right now, or you sign high end players who will help you win a championship. The Wild have done nothing but sign players who will maybe not be terrible or are strictly average, not who will help us win a championship. I mean signing guys like we have before will get us an 8th seed and a knockout in the first round at best in the playoffs. MN fans are not tough enough or critical enough of our GM's/Owner's decisions. Have fans forgotten they have the ultimate say in what happens, no ticket/merchandise sales = no team or profit for owners. I will freak out if the Wild sign more 20 point producers for overpaid contracts. And hopefully we get rid of PM Bouchard, we overpaid him and he is injured every time he comes in contact with another player, if you can't take a hit you probabaly shouldn't be playing hockey, no offense just how it is. Cullen is overpaid too and he's old, no upside, Brodziak is a much better center for the future.